Robot Legs
by elenniel
Summary: Sanji's been working on some secret project in Franky's workshop and Usopp really wants to know what it is. SanjixNami. (For SanNami Week 2016, Day 3 - Handle with Care.) **Sorry, had to re-post this because the formatting kept getting messed up. I hope it's better now!**
**_A/N: Written for SanNami Week 2016, Day 3 - Handle with Care. (I'm a day late though! -_-" )_**

* * *

Usopp peered curiously into Franky's workshop through the circular window on the door. What _was_ Sanji doing there? He'd been sitting at that corner table almost every weekend for at least two months now, fiddling with something. His back was always to the window, so Usopp could never see what he was doing.

When he applied to Franky for answers, the only answer Franky would vouchsafe was: "Ask Sanji yourself."

Ask Sanji. Pfft.

Usopp had tried to ask once, but all he got out of Sanji was a curt "mind your own business." The prospect of Sanji telling him what he was doing in there was not high.

He could not imagine what Sanji might be making. Oh, he was fairly sure Sanji was making something. But he wanted to know what. Sanji was a cook, not a mechanic. So why did he need to sit in Franky's workshop, of all places?

He had slipped into the workshop when Sanji and Franky were out, but found nothing more than tools, tools, and more tools. And boxes of shipbuilding supplies.

Usopp decided that he needed help. This mystery wouldn't unravel itself.

He broached the subject with Chopper first. Sanji, he told Chopper, was behaving really strangely lately. Had Chopper noticed? No? Well, it seemed like Sanji was working on some mystery project in Franky's workshop every weekend lately…

"Why in Franky's workshop?" asked Chopper.

"Exactly what I want to know!" exclaimed Usopp. "Franky won't tell me either. So he must be in on the secret too! I wonder if…"

"If what?"

"If Sanji is trying to turn himself into a cyborg like Franky."

"WHAAAAT?"

Luffy later had the same reaction as Chopper and just like that, Usopp got himself two allies.

He tried his luck with Robin. Robin said that yes, she had noticed Sanji in Franky's workshop quite often lately, but it didn't seem very nice to pry when Sanji obviously didn't want to talk about it.

Damn. He'd wanted Robin's help. She could have probably caused an eye and an ear to appear in the workshop when Sanji was in there and spied on him. Oh well.

Usopp considered asking Nami. He ruled her out after two seconds. Nami and Sanji were basically _together_ so there was no way Nami was going to help him. She probably even knew what he was up to already. She would most likely tell Sanji directly and then Usopp would find himself being literally kicked into the sea.

Brook's response was: "Sanji-san is turning himself into a cyborg? Hmmmm. That would be interesting. I shall write a song for him. It'll be called _The Mechanical Cook_." And he had strolled off, humming a tune to himself.

Zoro said, "I don't care. The stupid cook can turn himself into a frying pan if he likes."

 _Never mind_ , Usopp thought. _I still have Luffy and Chopper._

That Saturday, they observed Sanji carefully. After breakfast, he went into Franky's workshop and only came out again in time to prepare lunch. After lunch was over, he went back in and stayed there until he had to make dinner. On Sunday he only went into the workshop between breakfast and lunch. Sunday afternoons and evenings he spent mostly with Nami.

The weekend after that, he did the same thing and so Usopp formed his plan.

"He'll usually be with Nami on Sunday evenings," he said to his co-conspirators. "And Franky's usually taking a nap then too. So we can sneak in and have a look around."

Luffy nodded. "It's not fair of Sanji to learn how to make himself robot legs and not tell us how to do it too!"

"Uh, right. Yes, it's unfair. Very unfair. He should tell us how to do it too." Usopp turned to Chopper. "You'll stand watch outside the workshop while Luffy and I poke around inside. Okay?"

"Okay!"

* * *

 **That Sunday**

Sanji emerged from the workshop, wiping some sweat off his brow. He went to take a bath before heading up to the orange grove to join Nami there. Three pairs of eyes followed him. Once they heard him speaking to Nami, they ran to the workshop.

"Tell me what you find inside!" said Chopper.

"And you raise the alarm if someone comes along!" said Usopp. "Also, if anyone does come along, try and stall them." He shut the door as Chopper gave him a little salute and turned his back on the door.

Luffy had already started digging through shelves and cupboards. Usopp joined him. They dug through boxes and looked at tools – some of which were quite unknown to either of them. Usopp had to spend half his time putting back the things that Luffy picked up, though, since Luffy was not in the least inclined to put things back in the right places. Luffy may not care about being discovered, but Usopp certainly did.

Luffy picked up a box and shook it. Some stuff rattled around inside, making light clinking sounds.

"Oi, Luffy!" hissed Usopp. "Don't do that!"

"But it sounds so cool!" Luffy shook the box again. Usopp hoped it was just metal pieces or something like that, not glass. He knew Franky had some glass tubes that were used in some parts of the ship's engines.

Luffy opened the box and to Usopp's relief, it was indeed some metallic items. Nothing looked broken either.

"Aw, boring," said Luffy. "Hey! What's this thing over here?" He ran over to where an odd contraption sat on the floor.

Usopp was beginning to regret bringing Luffy into this.

* * *

Sanji enjoyed few things more than his Sundays with Nami. This Sunday she had decided that her orange trees needed some trimming. So armed with a pair of pruning shears, he was happily helping her lop off extraneous leaves and branches from her precious trees. She was working on the tree beside his, there was a breeze blowing, and everything was just lovely.

"Ah, I'm thirsty," said Nami. "Did we – oh no. We forgot to bring the drinks up with us from the kitchen."

"I'll get them." He put down his shears. "You really should put on the last hat you bought. It'll get hotter in a bit."

"That hat is delightful, but the brim is huge. If I had that on, this would be a bit harder to do." She took his cigarette out of his mouth, put her arm around his neck and kissed him so hard he thought he might see stars. And hearts. And little flying birds and butterflies.

Sanji saw none of those, of course, but he did feel like he was walking a bit crookedly as he made his way down to the kitchen in a haze of happiness. As he reached the kitchen, he thought he saw Chopper on the next flight of stairs. He dismissed it from his mind and went to get a bottle of cold water from the refrigerator and two glasses from the cupboard.

He left the kitchen but this time, he was certain that he saw a pair of antlers disappearing rapidly down the stairs. There was also the sound of hooves frantically pattering away in that direction.

Frowning, Sanji descended the stairs and followed the sound of Chopper's feet.

"Aaaah! Sanji!"

Chopper was gazing at him with an overly nonchalant expression on his face.

"Chopper?"

"Ah, er, it's – I'm – I'm surprised to see you here, Sanji! Aren't you supposed to be with Nami?"

Sanji's eyes narrowed. "I came to get something from the kitchen." He held up the bottle of water and the two glasses. "Is something wrong?"

"NO! No, no. Not at all. I just didn't expect to see you here!"

A panicked look was starting to come over Chopper's face, and Sanji noticed it. He also noticed that they were standing in front of Franky's workshop. The frown on his face deepened.

"Chopper," he began, but was interrupted by voices from inside the room.

He cast a glance at Chopper, who was staring at the door in horror, then strode over to the door himself and opened it slowly.

"What about this one?" Luffy was saying, as he plucked a box labelled "FRAGILE: HANDLE WITH CARE" out from a stack of boxes under the table.

"Luffy! Put it back! Sanji's outsi–" Usopp's words died away as he noticed saw Sanji standing in the doorway.

"Oooh, this box looks good too." Luffy tucked the "FRAGILE" box under one arm and tried to pull out a shiny silver one.

He pulled a bit too hard… And then everything went wrong. The silver box came loose from the stack with a jerk and Luffy, carried by the momentum, careened into Usopp, whose gaze was riveted to Sanji. Both Luffy and Usopp fell over in a heap, the silver box clunked across the floor, and the one labelled "FRAGILE" went up in the air and came down with a crash.

There was the distinct sound of something breaking.

Sanji felt the blood drain from his face.

Usopp crawled out from under Luffy, took one look at Sanji and the blood drained from his face too.

"Usopp!" grumbled Luffy. "Why didn't you move?" He got to his feet and only then did he notice Sanji. "Oh… Sanji." He looked at the mess around him, and then back at his cook. "Where did you hide your robot legs, Sanji?"

* * *

Nami looked over the railing. It sounded like there was quite a commotion going on below decks. Even Zoro, who had been dozing by the mast, had woken up. Robin got up from under the umbrella where she had been reading.

Brook, on watch duty up in the crow's nest, called down to them. "What's all that noise?"

"Don't know," replied Nami. "Probably those other idiots playing a new game or something."

There was a loud, dull thud – as though something heavy had fallen over. Nami, Robin and Zoro exchanged looks. With one accord, they headed in the direction of the ruckus. They arrived at Franky's workshop to find Chopper looking frantic outside, and Usopp and Luffy cowering behind Franky, who was trying to hold off one very enraged Sanji.

Sanji, clearly in a blazing fury, was brandishing a box at them and shouting threats. "YOU MORONS! YOU'VE RUINED IT! WEEKS OF WORK! I'm going to fillet you and then cook you and use you as bait to catch our next meal!"

"Sanji, bro," said Franky, trying to calm him down. "It's done. You can't bring it back. Filleting them won't do you any good."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that. It'd give me intense satisfaction."

Usopp had noticed Nami by this time and scurried over to her and threw himself on her mercy. "Nami!" he cried. "Save us!"

Sanji turned. "Hiding behind a lady now, are you, Usopp? Come here and face me!"

Usopp shrank back even more behind Nami. He tugged beseechingly at the sleeve of her shirt, muttering, "Save us, Nami! I didn't know, I swear! I'm sorry! Luffy broke it!"

"What?" Nami felt rather bewildered, but she saw enough to gather that Usopp and Luffy had broken something and that something belonged to Sanji. What had they broken though, that would make him that angry? "Sanji!" she said. "What's going on?"

"These… Idiots… Ruined my project!"

Nami heard a terrified squeal from Usopp. Luffy peered at them all from behind Franky's huge arm.

"Geez," said Zoro. "Kicking up a fuss over some stupid trivial thing again, Curly-brow?"

"Shut up, _marimo_!" snapped Sanji. "Don't butt in!"

"The noise that YOU kicked up woke me! I think I have a right to butt in."

Shoe met sword and Nami intervened. "Enough!"

Nami turned to Robin with a pleading look. Robin took the hint. She came up to Usopp, took him by the shoulders and said, "Usopp, we should leave, don't you think?" To Zoro she said, "Zoro, some help, please? Usopp-kun seems rather shaken." She motioned for Franky to follow them out. She smiled at Chopper. "Dr. Chopper, would you like to come with us?" Chopper scampered after them gratefully.

"Wait, so Sanji doesn't have robot legs?" said Luffy as they left.

Once they were all gone, Nami pulled Sanji to a chair and made him sit down. "All right, Sanji-kun, what's this all about? What project is this you're talking about? And why is it here in Franky's workshop?" She dragged another chair over and sat down in it herself.

Sanji stuck another cigarette in his mouth and sat in unhappy silence for a while. He looked in the damaged box and sighed deeply, saying, "I suppose it doesn't matter now."

He handed her the box. "It was for you. Kind of cracked now though, and probably unusable."

In the box was a long necklace chain with a small round locket hanging off it. The front of the locket had come off, revealing what looked like a monocle inside. The glass was cracked, and had a triangular piece missing.

"What is this?" said Nami.

Sanji lifted it out of the box. "This," he said, "is – or was – a small magnifying glass." He nudged the circular glass piece with a finger and it swung out of the locket. Another nudge and it shifted back into place. "I thought that you could use it. To read some of those maps with, y'know, when you're standing on deck and can't be at your table. It seemed like it might be useful." He held it out to her.

Nami let him drop it in her hand. The locket containing the magnifying glass was a small thing, perhaps not more than three centimetres across. She looked at the magnifying glass itself. If it hadn't been cracked and broken, she thought it certainly might have been a very good one.

"I saw the glass in a store at the last island we stopped at and had the idea to make this," explained Sanji. "I bought the necklace chain and got Franky to help me figure out what to do – making the locket and fixing the glass to it and all that. Took some time to sort out but we got it in the end. Obviously I didn't do such a good job with the screw for the clasp since all it took was one mishap from Luffy to smash it open – and break the glass too." He looked around ruefully. "I wonder where the cover went. It's harder than you think to pound metal into the shape you want."

Nami turned the locket over. The back of it had a small "N" engraved into it. "Did you do this too?" she asked.

He nodded. "It's not very good, I know. But that was my fifth try and I don't think I'm going to get any better at it unless I take proper lessons and, well, we can't do that out at sea."

"Considering that you're a cook and not a metalworker or a craftsman, I think it's pretty good."

"Really?"

He sounded so surprised and so pleased that Nami couldn't help smiling. Sanji was one of those people who had much less self-confidence than they showed to the world, and he always tried so very hard to make her happy.

"What did I do to deserve you, Sanji-kun?" she said, finishing her train of thought aloud. She took hold of his hand and pressed it. "Thank you. It was very thoughtful of you. But I'm afraid we can't exactly kill Usopp and Luffy over this."

He raised her free hand and touched his lips to it. "That's too bad. I was hoping to dangle them off the side of the boat, attached to a fishing rod. We might catch a good fat Sea King that way."

"There are other ways they can make up for it, perhaps." She slid her other hand up his chest, allowing the necklace to slip over her wrist like a long dangly bracelet.

"I shall leave that in your capable hands, Nami-san," murmured Sanji, drawing closer to her.

"Yes, you do that," she said. "But hey, what was that Luffy said about robot legs?"

Sanji shrugged. "I have no idea. He seemed to think I was making myself robotic legs. As if I would!"

"Good. I happen to like your legs just the way they are."

He chuckled, arms wrapping around her waist. "I happen to like your legs just the way they are too."

"An excellent choice," said Nami with a laugh, and tilted her head up to kiss him.

* * *

The next crew duty roster saw Usopp, Luffy, and Chopper on dishwashing duty for the following two months.


End file.
